Tony Blair will today attempt to re-establish control over the domestic political agenda by calling for an overhaul of the criminal justice system, which he believes to be in worse shape than any other public service.

After a slide in the polls and three weeks of negative headlines, the prime minister will launch a programme of party events designed to establish the territory for Labour's next election manifesto.

But uncertainty remains as to whether he will be able to shake off questions about his succession, with noises-off continuing at the weekend from the separate camps of both the PM and his likely successor, Gordon Brown.

Under the banner of Let's Talk, Mr Blair will lead the Labour party into a series of conferences on public service reform. His frustration at the administration of justice predates the fiasco over foreign prisoners, and controversy over the human rights of convicted criminals, but has been given further fuel by them. "I believe people want a society without prejudice but with rules; rules that are fair; that we all play by; and rules that, when broken, carry a penalty," Mr Blair will say.

"The truth is most people don't think we have such a society. The problem of crime can be subject to lurid reporting or undue focus on terrible but exceptional cases. But even allowing for this, the fundamental point is valid.

"Despite our attempts to toughen the law and reform the criminal justice system - reform that has often uncovered problems long untouched - the criminal justice system is still the public service most distant from what reasonable people want."

In a formal minute released in full today, the prime minister tells the home secretary, John Reid, to ensure "that the criminal justice system is shaped around targeting the offender and not just the offence, in order to enhance public protection and ensure that the law-abiding majority can live without fear".

He calls on Mr Reid to "build on, and seek to accelerate" a reduction in crime, and to ensure that the police "radically improve their performance on customer and victim satisfaction". Mr Reid is the fourth of Mr Blair's four home secretaries to be told that the department needs to perform better.

At the launch today in London, Mr Blair will call on the Labour party to accept new forms of delivery, and to embrace and harness ideas from outside opinionformers and "stakeholders". Organisations including Microsoft, the CBI, the Red Cross, the National Consumer Council, and the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, are being co-opted into the Let's Talk process.

Hazel Blears, the new party chairman, is attending meetings of the new ministerial teams in each department to enlist their involvement. The Let's Talk proposals will be debated at party conference and be finalised at the party's national policy forum in November.

"There is a new agenda to be grasped and shaped by progressive politics," Mr Blair will say today. "Modern social democracy must find answers to these new questions or fall back. We need this debate to be open, frank, and engage public as well as party. The most effective politics today is not tribal. It is issues-based. And we should play our part with confidence." Mr Blair has likened the Let's Talk initiative to the debate he launched over replacing the party's old clause 4, but some activists will today's speech as further proof that Let's Talk is designed to reduce the sovereign power of the party conference. Ms Blears said that the initiative would "allow us to step back from the fray, think about our priorities, and consider how best to match our progressive values to the demands and needs of the British people".

Mr Brown is concerned that the prime minister might "do a Margaret Thatcher" and leave office in a way which will leave the Labour party divided and unelectable. The chancellor believes that the political events of the past 10 days have created their own momentum, and does not intend to repeat his interventions of last week. The show of unity which marked the deal between Downing Street and the Treasury over pension reform has failed to deal with either the timing or the manner of Mr Blair's departure, according to the chancellor's supporters.

After the previous tacit deal between the two came unstuck, the chancellor is reluctant to accept verbal assurances from the prime minister and wants a written and witnessed agreement.

Mr Blair's former flatmate, Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, headed off airing of handover issues in a round of media interviews yesterday.

Next week Mr Blair faces the prospect of a second rebellion on his controversial school reforms, with hostile amendments being debated that are designed to limit the number of self-governing trust schools and scrap selection at 11. This issue cuts across Brown/Blair lines but will add to the sense of malaise.

Though the Conservatives are likely to vote with the government to ensure that the bill remains intact, the amendments, agreed by a group of mainstream Labour MPs, have the potential to attract more than the 52 Labour backbenchers who voted against the government in March.

The amendments include:

· An end-date of 2010 for the 11-plus exam. Parents to be allowed to vote in a ballot to restore the exam after that date.

· Tighter admissions criteria to be written in to the bill to restrict "backdoor selection" by schools.

· Local authorities rather than individual schools to be given the responsibility of deciding whether the admissions criteria are met by an individual pupil.

· A register of approved trust partners to be set up, to prevent disreputable outside organisations taking control of schools.

· Moves by schools to become trusts to be agreed in principle by a ballot of school parents.

Bury North MP David Chaytor said: "The government should listen very, very carefully to what is being argued through these amendments. This is not about concessions, its about improvements."